Log in

Recognising Racism - John C. Kirk

Aug. 11th, 2007

04:21 pm - Recognising Racism

International Blog Against Racism Week continues (as per ibarw), so this is a post where I'm genuinely trying to understand a different point of view. Mind you, I should point out that I'm not following rule 2, i.e. I've left my icon alone.

Last night I came across a review of the "Transformers" film by a guest blogger at The Angry Black Woman blog. I'm going to post some separate thoughts about that film later; for now I'm more interested in some general principles.

In one comment, the site owner (the eponymous "angry black woman") says:

here on this blog, we like to have level 2 and 3 conversations about racism and race relations. Not Level 1 conversations.

What makes a level 1 discussion? one in which the presence of racism in America and American media is questioned. So here’s a clue to catch those of you still on level 1 up: Racism exists. How do I know? i experience it. I see it. I hear about it. From who? Minorities. White people. Intelligent folks who live in the world. Who regularly tells me that racism doesn’t exist or that X thing isn’t racist? Ignorant, clueless white people. Guess what, white people? the only people who get to declare racism over are those to whom racism happens. That would mean not you.

If you are white and someone non-white says “hey, that’s racist” the correct response is not NO IT ISN’T BECAUSE I HAVE A BLACK FRIEND WHO LIKES IT or some other lame reason. the correct response is “why do you feel that way?” and then, when they tell you, to go off somewhere and think instead of talking.

I've never been to America, but I think it's fair to say that the same principle applies in England.

Looking at the Required Reading page on that blog, I haven't read all of the linked articles, but there are a couple of quotes that did strike me as significant.

In How to Suppress Discussions of Racism, point 4 says "Deflect attention away from the specific criticism." Two specific examples of this are:"I'm [a member of an oppressed group] and I'm not offended.""My friend is [a member of an oppressed group] and he/she is not offended."In this context, I assume that the oppressed group is the one that the original criticism referred to, e.g. if one person is complaining about the portrayal of a black character in a film and then someone else says "I'm black, and I'm not offended."

In the meantime, my fond hope is that, one day, I may be able to do my job without being called a Nazi. Today I went to a fight. A description was passed over the air along the following lines: 'Offender is an Asian male, twenties, yellow T-shirt, 5ft 5in, medium build, injuries to back of head.'

So I go and have a look and... blimey! There he is!

I stopped him and spoke to him.

'Would you mind just waiting there a second, sir? Only we've had a report of an assault and, well... control, can you repeat the description of the offender, please?'

I made sure the youth was listening in. After it had been read out (and I mean he matched the description to the letter) he said (and I quote), 'This is racism, man. Why aren't you stopping any of those English people?'

(p. 158)

The author is writing under a pseudonym ("David Copperfield"), so it's possible that he isn't even a real policeman. On the other hand, I could say the same thing about any random people on the internet, so I think it's reasonable to consider this as a plausible hypothetical scenario.

Personally, I don't think that this incident counts as racism. However, I'm white, so according to the Angry Black Woman this isn't my call to make. I could ask an Asian friend/colleague for their opinion, but apparently that also doesn't count. It would also be impractical to hold a referendum for an entire community each time there's an accusation of racism. So, how should one handle a situation like this?

Apologies are a tricky issue; I think they should be sincere, so you should only apologise if you're genuinely sorry for what you said or did. One approach is to say something like "I'm sorry that you feel that way", but lots of people think that a weasel apology like that is worse than not saying anything at all. (I don't have a citation for that to hand, but I can find one on request.)

I think that the most important thing is to learn from the experience, so that if you have inadvertently said something racist then you can avoid repeating the same mistake in the future. So, how do you decide when that's the case?

Comments:

Trust me, racism is alive and well in the U.S. It's not as bad as it was even ten years ago, but it's definitely out there.

I've only ever been called a racist once, and it caught me completely off guard. I used to live in a rental house, and one day when I was home alone someone knocked on the door. It was a young woman, probably 19/20, who wanted to sell me something. She also happened to be black. (I am not going to say African American, because not all black people in the US are descended from Africans)

She wanted to come in to use my phone, and because I was home alone and I didn't have a cordless to bring out to the porch, I told her no. She immediately starts yelling at me at the top of her lungs about how I won't let her in because I'm racist. I was so shocked that I didn't know what to do. She could have been lily white with platinum blonde hair and freckles, and I still would have told her no because I was home alone.

I said "How does not letting a stranger in my house make me racist??" She starts to scream at me about how she "just can't come in because she's black!" She continues to bellow about what a racist I am as she moves down the street and onto the next block. I felt absolutely awful and had to poll several of my friends to see if I had somehow slighted an entire group of people by not letting a stranger in the house. They said I hadn't, but I'm sure that woman feels differently.

The votes on voting won't give you the "one correct answer", but I know you know that - guess you just want to seek your friends' opinions.

Sometimes people feel they've been discriminated against on racial grounds, but after reflection, change their mind - I've had some discussions with Indian friends living in Germany who felt so, but after I suggested some simple alternative explanations for the incidents in question, were prepared to concede that it may not have been racial, but merely nasty :-)

On the other hand, I or others may have been subjected to racism without even being aware of it, simply because we were doing our own thing and didn't even realize what was meant by someone when they said or did something.

Anyway, I feel that while racism is alive and widespread, and may never disappear entirely, it has also gone down over the last few decades - especially the explicit or "sanctioned" kind - and that's the best thing.